Addressing a press conference, Pawar said the trends of the assembly polls (in five states set to be held in November) suggest the situation is favourable for the opposition, but added he had no authentic information to comment on whether there would be a change (in government) at the national level.
In acute embarrassment to the Congress party and Chief Minister N Kiran Kumar Reddy in Andhra Pradesh, supporters of rebel leader YS Jaganmohan Reddy caused the defeat of a Congress candidate in the elections to the legislative council.
United Muslim Action Committee, an umbrella of more than a dozen Muslim organisations of Andhra Pradesh, on Wednesday declared an all-out war against ruling Congress party, specially Chief Minister N Kiran Kumar Reddy.
When the Bharatiya Janata Party's Mukesh Dalal was declared elected unopposed to the Lok Sabha from Surat on Monday, he became the first candidate to achieve the feat from Gujarat since its formation 64 years ago though the erstwhile state of Saurashtra saw a similar instance in 1951.
Praja Rajyam Party president K Chiranjeevi has totally ruled out the question of merging his 15-month-old outfit with the ruling Congress in Andhra Pradesh.
Elections will be held on June 10 to fill 57 Rajya Sabha seats from 15 states falling vacant due to the retirement of members on different dates between June and August, the Election Commission said on Thursday.
The YSR Congress is all set to wrest power in Andhra Pradesh, with the party on course to secure a landslide win, leaving the ruling Telugu Desam Party way behind in the assembly elections.
Given the possibilities that next year's assembly elections could throw up, Stalin told the state assembly that an interim report had to be submitted by January 2026. The outcomes may well find its way into the DMK's poll manifesto, thus seeking to keep the electoral focus still on the BJP-ruled Centre and Prime Minister Modi, observes N Sathiya Moorthy.
Former Congress leader YS Jaganmohan Reddy has began a day-long fast at Jantar Mantar in Delhi in protest against the 'injustice' meted out to Andhra Pradesh in the Krishna Water Disputes Tribunal verdict. The former Congress Member of Parliament from Kadapa, who had resigned from the party on November, arrived late on Monday night by a special train along with his supporters and farmers.Sources said the objective of the fast is to highlight farmers' plight.
The 77-year-old was recently diagnosed with pneumonia and was admitted to the hospital, where he died at 1.28 am, a Congress leader said.
The Congress government in Andhra Pradesh suffered yet another blow with its Kakinada MLA Dwarampudi Chandrasekhar Reddy formally joining the YSR Congress on Thursday.
In its closure report on Rohith Vemula's death, the Telangana police claimed he was not a Dalit and died by suicide in 2016 as he feared that his "real caste" would be discovered.
Amid speculation that Congress will neutralise the Jagan camp by accomodating some of his loyalists in the new Andhra Pradesh cabinet, the rebel Kadapa MP may find the going tough. For the 38-year-old son of former Chief Minister Y S R Reddy, who has been aspiring to become the CM, the increasing isolation may push him into breaking away from Congress and forming a new party, political analysts feel.
Voting for the second phase of Lok Sabha polls will be held on Friday for 88 seats in 13 states with Congress leader Rahul Gandhi seeking a second-straight term from Wayanad in Kerala.
With the Congress in power in the state and the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) snapping at its heels, the BRS is now fighting an existential battle.
Describing Y S Rajasekhara Reddy as a 'dynamic' chief minister and human being, the Congress on Thursday said his demise was a 'tremendous loss' to the party, which will take very long to come to terms with it. Condoling Reddy's death, Left parties described him the 'popular' chief minister of Andhra Pradesh. "Reddy was the son of the soil and had special concern for the welfare of poor and other weaker sections of the society," the BJP said.
Tamil Nadu's Deputy Chief Minister Udhayanidhi Stalin has reacted to Andhra Pradesh counterpart Pawan Kalyan's out-of-turn taunts with a one-liner, 'Let's wait', and thereby hangs a tale, notes N Sathiya Moorthy.
Singh stressed on discipline and unity in the party.
Seeking to buy time, the Congress high command appears to be toying with the idea of having a deputy chief minister and Pradesh Congress Committee chief in Andhra Pradesh from Telangana region amid a growing clamour for a separate state
Telangana Rashtra Samithi president K Chandrasekhar Rao on Sunday evening spurned the Congress offer on alliance for Andhra Pradesh Legislative Council polls.
Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister N Kiran Kumar Reddy on Tuesday dared Telangana Rashtra Samiti chief K Chandrasekhar Rao to topple the state government.
Flaying the United Progressive Alliance government for its 'unilateral' decision on the bifurcation of Andhra Pradesh, Telugu Desam Party President N Chandrababu Naidu on Wednesday said the Congress is not in a position to convince its members on the tumultuous issue of "equal justice" for people of Telangana as well as Seemandhra.
The humiliation for the Telugu Desam Party was such that it could cross the double digit in only five urban local bodies while other opposition parties Bharatiya Janata Party and Jana Sena Partymade little gains.
The talks between the ruling Congress party and the Praja Rajyam Party for a tie-up for the Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation on Monday suffered a major setback.
Gadikota Srikanth Reddy, Congress MLA from Kadapa in this interview with rediff.com's Vicky Nanjappa, says that it is a wrong image that is being portrayed in the media that the Congress in AP is against Jagan.
Senior Congress leader from Andhra Pradesh, G Venkataswamy, who created a flutter by demanding Congress President Sonia Gandhi's resignation as party president, on Wednesday said he is ready to withdraw all his comments.
Though the terms of reference of the committee to look into the creation of a Telangana state may come in the next few days, the Congress is worried about the 'political' price it may have to pay for moving too fast on the statehood issue.
Take the case of Sudarshan Reddy, irrigation minister in the Andhra Pradesh government. He hails from the Bodan constituency in Nizamabad district and was supposed to return to his home constituency on Saturday. However, he advised against it due to the protests outside his house.
Rebel Congress leader and former Lok Sabha member from Kadapa YS Jaganmohan Reddy on Tuesday declared that the Andhra Pradesh government's days were numbered. Jagan's 48-hour hunger strike in Vijaywada for the calamity-stricken has received support from over a lakh people and 20 Congress legislators. He told his supporters that they should be ready for a longer battle to ensure justice to the farmers, weavers and other weaker sections of the state.
Cine actress and Telangana Rashtra Samithi MP M Vijaya Shanthi on Thursday joined Congress at a time when the possibility of TRS merging with Congress seemed to have hit a roadblock.
Nearly half of the MPs elected in the 2019 general elections in India were first-timers.
Consolidating its position, the Bharatiya Janata Party wrested high-profile Rampur and Azamgarh Lok Sabha seats in Uttar Pradesh from the Samajwadi Party and won three assembly seats, including that of Chief Minister Manik Saha, in Tripura in by-election results announced on Sunday.
The Congress is trying to devise a political strategy to capitalise on the ongoing agitation in Andhra Pradesh, for a separate Telengana state, and defuse the pressure on the state government regarding the issue.Congress president Sonia Gandhi reportedly spoke to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh about the revival of the Committee on Telengana, which was constituted during the United Progressive Alliance's first term but was subsequently abandoned.
Fighting the Congress in the family pocket-borough of Kadapa in prestigious by-elections, Y S Jagan Mohan Reddy on Thursday ruled out going back to the party, saying he cannot "throw his core values" for the sake of "power and position".
Andhra Pradesh Congress Committee president D Srinivas has welcomed Praja Rajyam chief K Chiranjeevi's assurance on extending his party's support to the Congress government in the state if the situation demanded.
'He keeps reminding me he is senior. There is no debate in this. I have never shown any disrespect to you since you are a senior,' the PM said.
The by-election was necessitated following the resignation of Pocharam in March this year. He had quit his assembly membership as well as the Telugu Desam Party on the statehood issue and joined the TRS.
'The central BJP leaders were determined to push Hindutva hard, and it failed.'
The political buzz in Delhi Corridors of power is not good for the Congress, especially when the President of India elections are near.
